One storm, widespread damage

  An area of low pressure brings heavy rain to Japan [Japan Meteorological Agency]

A strong spring storm is continuing its journey across Japan after leaving widespread damage and injuries across China.

Starting earlier this week, central and eastern China first began seeing the impact of this storm.

In China’s Hunan Province, a 30 minute tornado caused extensive destruction. According to the local civil administration department, more than 200 houses were damaged, dozens of people were injured and one person was reported dead.

To the southern city of Luzhou, the storm brought hailstones up to two centimetres in diameter. Authorities reported 480 houses damaged and thousands of hectares of crops destroyed.

On Monday afternoon it was China’s Fujian Province that experienced significant flooding. In just three hours, up to 175mm of rain fell in some areas.

As the storm made its way into southern Japan, the city of Owase began to report some of the heaviest rain first. By end of day Tuesday, over 170mm of rain had fallen with an additional 370mm on Wednesday.

Many other cities across the southeast also reported 24 hour rainfall totals that were 2 to even 3 times higher than their May monthly averages.

The Japan Meteorological Agency kept its heavy rain warnings and advisories in place on Thursday for all of cental and northern Honshu as well as Hokkaido. Conditions are beginning to ease in the south, but it will no be until Saturday until the storm finally makes its exit into the NW Pacific.